READ: Luke 1:38 NLT
Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”
We know the story of Jesus’ miraculous birth so well that no part of it is a surprise to us. So we’ve really got to work hard to imagine how completely and stupefyingly incredible this moment was for Mary. She is probably a teenager and may well never have been outside the rural Galilee region where she was born. The news that she is going to have a baby was shockingly surprising at every level. She knew that she was a virgin and that having a baby was therefore a complete impossibility. But she listens attentively to the angel’s words and is assured that, crazy as this all sounded, nothing is impossible with God.
Her response is extraordinarily impressive. She describes herself as the Lord’s servant and accepts the future that God had chosen for her. To be a servant would normally be seen as demeaning. We probably instinctively think of the TV series Downton Abbey: of the way in which servants, living below stairs, were given all the heavy, dirty and difficult work to do to enable a few people to live lives of incredible luxury. Being a servant doesn’t sound remotely attractive. But Mary recognized that it had all had to do with who you were serving and to be a servant of the Lord was the highest privilege of all.
This story of Mary might feel utterly remote from your life. However, it isn’t. God invites all of us today to be his servants and he wants us to see that this is the highest privilege of life. It doesn’t get better than this – not for Mary and not for us.
QUESTION: What does it mean for you to be the servant of the Lord today?
PRAYER: Thank you Lord that because of your love for me you invite me to be your servant. Help me to be more like Mary and to embrace joyfully the future that you have for me. Amen.

Released on 18 Dec 2020